NEW DELHI: Seeking to seize transformative moment in
ties with India, US Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive on Wednesday for
talks on key issues with the new leadership in the national capital.

The US will seek to establish top level contact with
the new Indian government as Kerry arrives on a visit that is expected to lay
the groundwork for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-awaited September visit
to the US.

Kerry’s visit is aimed at instilling some vigour into
the bilateral ties, which appeared to have lost momentum in the final years of
UPA regime.

During his three-day visit, Kerry will co-chair the
fifth India-US Strategic Dialogue on July 31 along with his Indian counterpart
Sushma Swaraj on crucial issues of Strategic Cooperation; Energy and Climate
Change, Education and Development; Economy, Trade and Agriculture; Science and
Technology, Health and Innovation.

Ahead of his visit here, Kerry in Washington said,
“This is a potentially transformative moment in our partnership with India, and
we’re determined to deliver on the strategic and historic opportunities that we
can create together” and added that “The US and India can and should be
indispensable partners for the 21st century.”

He will call on Modi, who has been invited by American
President Barack Obama for a meeting in Washington in September. India-US ties
hit a low at the end of last year after senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade
was arrested in New York, strip-searched and charged with visa fraud for
allegedly underpaying her babysitter.

Kerry is also expected to visit Bangalore and will
also be joined by the Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker, who will be
visiting Mumbai prior to participating in the Strategic Dialogue.

The US Secretary of State will be accompanied by a
high- level inter-agency delegation and apart from Pritzker, the delegation
includes Deputy Secretary of the Department of Energy Daniel Poneman, Under
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Francis X Taylor and the US
Special Envoy for Climate Change in the Department of State Todd Stern.

Ahead of visiting India, Kerry, in a major speech,
stressed that the US and India have the potential to become indispensable
partners for the 21st century and said Washington wants to support the Modi
government’s vision of ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’ (together with all,
development for all).

Kerry in his address at the Centre for American
Progress (CAP), a major US think-tank, said Monday evening that he would be ‘emphasising
the opportunities’ in which the US and India can become indispensable partners
when he touches base with the new Indian government.